Ken R.
Yelp
(Note: I write Facebook reviews for residents of Turner's Crossing, a new development in Buda, as we all learn about good places to dine in Austin.)
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To call this popular Buda eatery outstanding is an understatement. There's a reason you need reservations even at 5 o'clock in the middle of the week, and people were still coming in at 7:30.
MudBugs is a friendly, welcoming place in Buda Mill & Grain Co., a renovated, historical landmark now housing boutiques and restaurants at the western edge of downtown Buda. The menu is heavy on New Orleans-style Cajun dishes, but there are several choices for the less adventurous among us.
For dinner this evening, there were four of us around the table because it was wife Karen's 80th birthday. We were the guests of our daughter and her husband.
For my Turner's Crossing neighbors, I expect that word-of-mouth has already reached you about the high-quality food in this place. It's only about 10 minutes down the road from us, so I do hope you have already tried it. If not, you are missing a nearby dining treasure.
This is a place to linger over dinner, but don't forget your wallet. Prices are moderate and absolutely worth what you pay.
For openers tonight, we started with some adult beverages from a full-service bar. The birthday girl, usually a teetotaler, got her favorite -- a brandy Alexander. Then we got an appetizer of fried calamari ($12) for the table. The calamari was done perfectly tender and crispy, and everybody raved about the remoulade sauce.
Karen ordered a bowl of gumbo ($12) for her meal. It was chock full of andouille sausage, seafood and okra. She pronounced the generous portion excellent and took some home with her.
Our son-in-law settled on a side Caesar salad ($7) and a bowl of the gumbo. Our daughter went with the "grateful shrimp" ($26), crab-stuffed, bacon-wrapped shrimp, rice, vegetable and tasso cream, a spicy, smoky and highly seasoned sauce common in Cajun cuisine.
I decided on something outside the box in a Cajun place. I got the meatloaf ($18), a large slab of the good stuff with a ketchup
glaze atop some mashed potatoes. Very tasty, and I considered it a particularly good value.
Our celebratory dinner was made even better by an attentive, efficient and very personable young waitress named Freya. She took excellent care of the birthday cake we had brought in with us and made sure we had everything needed to serve it as our dessert. She had set aside the original box to carry the leftover cake safely home with us. We insisted she get a piece to take home with her too.
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Following are notes from a previous visit to MudBugs:
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Tonight, we dined with a local couple we met at a downtown Buda coffeehouse a week or so ago. They recommended it, and their choice was on point. The conversation flowed easily, and time passed quickly. We agreed to try another place together soon.
For openers, they shared a shrimp bruschetta, Karen had a half dozen charbroiled oysters, and I had a cup of spicy shrimp gumbo. Their dinners were a special halibut catch of the day and a hefty stuffed-shrimp platter. Karen had shrimp and grits, and I had a double pork chop with creamed spinach. Karen and I both brought some of our meals home.
The place is casual with a fun vibe, but it is certainly not inexpensive. Food, however, is truly good and worth the cost. My pork chops were easily the best I ever had, even better than Hamway's in Toledo, which was famous for them.
Our server, Jack, was prompt, attentive and friendly. It all made for a delightful few hours with new friends.